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Just the other day I visted a blog (via a link but I forget where from but I think it was another MyBlogLog member) that in all honesty I think I knew existed in the back of my mind but never visited or read. Perhaps after reading all the good fiction that the blogs author had written I was worried that the blog would be the typical famouse person with no idea site, or worse yet find out the author was truely arrigant and a total wassock.

Fortunatly for me it's a good blog and the author is not anything bad at all.

Neil Gaiman (in case you have been living under a rock for twenty million years and have just discovered writting) is a darn good author. In case the name is unfamilure to you (shame on you) go look up Good Omens by Terry Pratchett (another great writer) and Neil Gaiman.

Now enough pandering to those who read different books to me on with the point of this write up.

If I were teaching creative writing I'd want to encourage creativity. (Although I'd also want ot encourage people to play in unfamiliar sandboxes. Remember, just because you like reading a particular form of fiction doesn't mean that that's what you'll be best at writing. It's true. Write Historical Fiction. Write Funny. Write Scary. Write "Mainstream". Write.)neilgaiman.com, Influences FAQ

Mr Gaiman has an extensive FAQ section on his site which I have just read over the last two days (No blog has ever had browser window time of that length before on one of My computers so you can pritty much guess I'm a Neil Gaiman fan).

He writes quite extensivly on the subject of writing and getting published and his blog is one to bookmark and read if you have ideas of being published youself.

The best single block of advice is to be found at neilgaiman.com, Advice FAQ where he recomends that you "...finish what you write" - possibly the most important thing an potential author needs to do.

He also talks about once your draft is complete and you need to edit - "The best advice I can give on this is, once it's done, to put it away until you can read it with new eyes." (neilgaiman.com, Advice FAQ) which is exactly what I would have said but ten times more valid as Neil is (a) famouse and (b) published.

Once you are published Neil would probably insist on telling you that you need to write a will, quick smart. I'd never thought about it before but if you die without giving instructions on who inherits the rights to your work you could cause family, fans and publishers huge headaches just as you make the "ultimate carreir move".